REIT Acquires Prime Atlanta Office Property

Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II is acquiring a 1 million sq. ft. Atlanta office campus from AT&T in a sale-leaseback transaction. The REIT did not disclose the acquisition price for the property, which is located in Lenox Office Park in Atlanta’s swanky Buckhead neighborhood.

The five-building, Class-A property, located between Peachtree Road and Interstate 85, is being leased back to AT&T under new 10- to 15-year leases. The telecommunications giant and its subsidiaries will occupy all of the five buildings at the property.

“This is a rare real estate opportunity — a million sq. ft. of prime office property, fully leased to a world-class tenant, in the top submarket of a Top 10 city,” says Don Henry, chief real estate officer for Wells Real Estate Funds.

The buildings were all constructed between 1992 and 2002 and range from four to 12 floors, Wells reports. One of the five buildings received Energy Star certification from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2007, a mark of efficient energy use.

“Lenox Park is a distinctive location,” notes Keith Willby, senior vice president for acquisitions with Wells Real Estate Funds. “It’s unusual to find a large, modern office park directly in a top urban submarket. And Buckhead is, in many ways, Atlanta’s jewel, with the top rents in the city.”

The property was marketed for AT&T by Staubach Capital Markets.Wells REIT, which specializes in office properties, is a private REIT not listed on stock exchanges.